


A Fighting Choice

by dragyn42



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-08
Updated: 2009-12-08
Packaged: 2020-03-01 04:11:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18792724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragyn42/pseuds/dragyn42
Summary: Ginny's fourth year found her ready to fight.  Was it a situation, or was it a decision?





	A Fighting Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Exchange: hp_holidaygen 2009  
> Recipient: lyras  
>   
> I was going for a different story, and this was supposed to be the three paragraph introduction. It wanted to be more, and as it wrote itself, I realized it fit your comments even better. This is a character study of Ginny in the few days after her third year. I hope you enjoy it.

The summer had been horrid so far. Ginny's mother had a conniption when she discovered that Voldemort had returned. If it weren't for her father constantly overriding their mother, they would have spent the entire summer holed up in their rooms, not allowed to even breath for fear of attracting the attention of Riddle and his Death Eaters.

Of course, the easiest way to distract her, as innately wrong as it might have been, was to remind her about Harry. This would always send her off on another rant about '...poor Harry, alone with those awful muggles after such a disastrous ordeal.' At least once a day, she would end up yelling at Headmaster Dumbledore and his decision to return Harry to his aunt and uncle. It was Ginny's opinion that the rants would have been more effective if the headmaster had actually been around to hear them.

And it had only been four days since they left school.

That fourth evening, though, was when things changed. Ginny's dad seemed quite a bit worried when he got home, and held quite a few long, whispered discussions with her mother when they thought no one was listening. He really needn't have worried about most of his children: the twins had been holed up in their room, only coming out for meals and chores – something had them really excited; Ron was off worrying about Harry, and writing Hermione – Pig was being put through his paces; and Percy... well, he had moved out – things were strained between the middle brother and the family. Of course, no one ever noticed when Ginny was around. It upset her quite a bit, usually, but it also often came in quite handy at times.

Apparently, things at the Ministry were becoming worrisome. There was a push to make sure the facts of Voldemort's return were seen as the ramblings of mentally unstable people – and of course people were already buying it. It put her dad in a very bad position, and he was afraid at some of the comments that had been thrown his way. Their family's closeness with both Dumbledore and 'that Potter boy' were well known. Her father had asked some acquaintances for help.

Later yet that evening, there were a couple pops from outside signifying apparition, and Ginny's mother and father answered the door together. Ginny, hiding in plain view, was surprised to see Professor Lupin and a slim, young woman in Auror robes with pink hair. They were invited into the kitchen where more hushed conversations were held. Through the conversation, Ginny's mother seemed to be adamantly opposed to something, looking worriedly around her kitchen like a child would look at a safety blanket. But after a while, she finally relented.

Another look around the kitchen, and through the doorway this time, she stood up and came into the living room.

"Go upstairs, Ginny," she demanded.

Ginny was going to protest, but something of the look on her mother's face caused her to think better of it. Her mother's face was full of worry – and not the standard type of worry she was used to. No, this was something more visceral, something was greatly wrong. Ginny was skulking out of the room, her opinion of her banishment clear, when she heard her mother continue.

"And pack," was the quiet conclusion.

Ginny stopped. That wasn't was she was expecting. And more so than anything else that evening, it scared her. "Mum?"

"Pack, Ginny. Take everything you'll need for the summer, and your school things too. We... We might not be back before it's time for you to leave for Hogwarts."

Ginny simply stared at her mother. They were running away? They were leaving the Burrow? The idea was alien to her.

"Ginny, please."

That snapped Ginny back to the present and she quickly turned and went to her room. She looked around at the room that had been _hers_ for as long as she could remember. There was the rickety shelf with the little knick-knacks she had been gifted with over the years, the poster of Gwenog Jones of the Holyhead Harpies on her wall and the floorboard that was forever scuffed where the twins had managed to slip a sticking potion of some type that she had neatly avoided – getting her brothers in trouble in the process.

She had unpacked her stuff only three days ago, and now she was being asked to pack it again. A part of her wondered, if things really were that bad, would she ever see her room again.

She pulled her various clothing items from their drawers and hanging places in the wardrobe, folded it all up and packed them all nice and tightly into her trunk. Grabbing her school books, her parchment rolls, her quills and ink and squeezing it all into the remaining space, she wondered as she always did how Muggleborns managed to fit everything they needed into their perfectly non-magical trunks. Not that hers had an abundance of room, its wear and the age of its charms were showing. But with the little extra room she did have, she still had to squeeze everything in.

Now that she was packed, she didn't know what else was expected of her. Were they sleeping here tonight and leaving in the morning? Were they leaving now, this moment? What else was Tom going to take from her?

She sat heavily, or as heavily as a girl of her figure could, onto her trunk. She stared around her room once more, this time feeling the enormity of was happening around her – what Tom Riddle was doing to her once again. Three years ago, the boy Tom Riddle had been had stolen her childhood from her. She knew what horrors existed in her mother's mind, what she _thought_ the monster had done to her, not that most of it was true.

Ginny understood the hatred that filled the boy Tom Riddle was, and she had an inkling of what it meant now that he was back. There wasn't as much 'sharing' as her mother seemed to believe, only the fact that he took from her her first year at school, her chance for friends, her innocence of not having nearly taken the life of her fellow students. And now, now he was taking her safety, her family home, her summer.

As she was mulling this over, her father knocked knocked on her door – he was the only one that knocked in that way, two quick knocks, and then another. Then he would wait. When she called him in, the door opened and he gave her a grim smile.

"Good." He looked around her room and Ginny wondered if he remembered the same things she did when he looked around. "I'm sorry about this, Ginny. I know this isn't how you wanted to spend your summer. But things at the Minist... No, never mind. Let's go."

Her father flicked his wand and her trunk lifted up with her still on it. Ginny smiled. He used to do that when she was younger, and much smaller. She would sit on a box and he would levitate it, floating her around the yard and she would squeal in laughter. After the events of the past several weeks and years, that seemed a lifetime ago.

When Ginny arrived in the living room, having pulled her floating trunk herself while her father went to get her brothers, her mother was talking quietly with the Auror while Professor Lupin leaned against the fireplace mantle. Even with what appeared to be casual conversation, Ginny could make out the tension in the set of her mother's shoulders.

A few minutes later the rest of the family joined them. Ron looked confused, their father looked worried and the twins looked oddly calm. Then Professor Lupin spoke up.

"I'm sorry about all this, kids. But after You-Know-Who's return and some other things that have been going on the past few days, we're not sure this house is safe for you right now. For the next month or so, perhaps the rest of the summer, you'll be moving in with a close friend of mind.

"The house in question is under a very special type of protection, so I will need you all to look at this piece of parchment. _Remember it_. The magic involved is quite strong. Tonks?"

At his prompting, the Auror pulled a small slip of parchment out and showed it to each person in the room, waiting for them to nod their acknowledgment that they had committed the contents to memory. Once Fred gave the final nod, the parchment was set on fire in her hand and, when mostly consumed, tossed into the fireplace.

Ginny watched as her brother threw a handful of sparkling green Floo Powder into the fireplace and called out his destination, stepping through. Fred and George did likewise with a brief look around the room. Professor Lupin was next.

"Go on, Ginny. Your father and I need to cast set some charms and jinxes once everyone is gone. Anyone looking for us will be in for a surprise. Go."

This was a side of her mother Ginny could not remember seeing. This was a woman who had fought before – fought for those she loved. Her parents didn't talk of the _last time_ much, but they had said enough. This was the woman in front of her now.

That realization made everything all too real. Tom had taken much from her. He was taking more from her. He had taking from her mother, from her father. Even Ron had fought against Tom. Ginny fought Tom as much as she could her first year, but that didn't work out well – at least, not until Harry finished it.

But now, now she would fight – for her friends, for her family, for herself. Ginny had no doubts that her mother would do everything she could to prevent it, but that would not stop Ginny from fighting. She would do what she needed, break any rules in her way, support Harry – for she had no doubts whatsoever he would be at the center of whatever Tom was doing – and prepare herself.

It was time she stood up to fight for what was hers. She would take back every bit of life that had been taken from her. This was the year Ginny Weasley would start to fight back.

She grabbed her handful of powder, threw it into the fireplace, called out "Twelve Grimmauld Place!" and stepped through.


End file.
